Which Do I use Fusion 360 or Inventor or both?

[oliver]

I am looking at moving over to an AutoDesk product namely Inventor or Fusion 360. I design and manufacture construction equipment made up of 100's of parts some imported, mostly created. 

My question is do I need Inventor & Fusion 360 or just Fusion 360?

Do I model my main machine design in inventor and then send the individual parts or assemblies, I machine to Fusion. Or will Fusion 360 suffice for all my work.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Regards Oliver

[James_Willo]

Hi Oliver, from what you are describing, Inventor would be definitely the way forward, I think at this moment in time Fusion would not meet all the requirements of your workflows.

You can still use both together though. You could do the main design in Inventor and then pass it to Fusion for advanced simulation or setting up machining programs/3D Printing. 

[oliver]

Thannk you very much for your reply James. I was looking at the Autodesk Product Design & Manufacturing Collection as it seemed best value for money. With access to Inventor and Fusion 360.

[James_Willo]

I think that is a good choice for most people purely because it's cheaper than buying AutoCAD and Inventor separately.
Just be aware that some Fusion extensions require tokens to use. I'm not sure how much of the full Fusion portfolio is included in PDMC. 

But realistically you can do all your design and documentation work in Inventor without needing Fusion. 

[oliver]

I need Fusion for the CAM to manufacture some of my parts on the Mill and lathe. As my current CAM software is so painful to use it took me 1 day to set up a pair of parts on my mill with 3 axis roughing and finishing. If you purchase Fusion independently are you still required to purchase tokens of some options?

[James_Willo]

I think CAM is OK, it's the cloud processing stuff you need to pay extra for, like simulation solving or rendering on the cloud. I'm no expert on Fusion payment options as obviously I get it all for free working at Autodesk. You'd be better off asking on the Fusion forums what is included and what is extra. 

[oliver]

Thank you for the help and advice.

When importing my 3D models from Rhinoceros 3D to Inventor, what would be the best file type. And I have read that the project file structure is also important.

[James_Willo]

I'm not sure what type of files Rhino can export, but our translator list says it can do up to 7.0

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-AF41FA87-7588-4698-9C41-756A01EBE7F4

You won't get any Rhino features (if it creates these? I've never used Rhino) imported, just geometry, but you can use direct edit to modify these once they are in Inventor. 
Also if you are using Rhino primarily for surfacing, Inventor can handle these, but Fusion is sometimes better for editing surface files. 

Are you referring to Inventor or Rhino project files? Inventor projects are important because it basically tells Inventor where to look for the files you are opening. 

[oliver]

I have a large 3D model of one of my products in Rhino 3D I can export as a .step, .stp and many others. I would want now solely use inventor for my work going forward.

Not only that, but I read a post on the importance of project file hierarchy in Fusion, so changes to parts would be updated throughout all assemblies. 

It said the project file should be your company, and then add files under that one project file. Is this true for Inventor as well?

[James_Willo]

Step file is fine also. 

You can do it either way and it's down to preference. Some companies just have a single project with everything in it, some will create a separate project for each customer/job they do. 

Hierarchy does work slightly differently in Fusion. In Inventor you create a load of parts and they are referenced by the assembly file, so if you edit a part, it will have those edits everywhere you use it. 

[oliver]

I greatly appreciate your help in the process of purchasing the Design & Manufacturing package, so I look forward to getting started. Could you possibly send me the help page links for Fusion and AutoCAD, please?

[James_Willo]

Fusion is here
https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-1C665B4D-7BF7-4FDF-98B0-AA7EE12B5AC2

AutoCAD

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2025/ENU/

Inventor
https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-38FD0129-6A24-40D5-8596-B354344F4F91

[oliver · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much.

[PhiltheUKSwede]

You might be fine designing in Fusion, its good. Start with Fusion and see how you go. I have certainly had assembilies  with over 100 components, no problem. 

[noakesEng]

Thank you for your time in replying with your advice. I went for the package of all three, AutoCAD, Inventor and Fusion for 1 year, so will try and see what suits me best.

Kind regards,

Oliver Noakes